Streams and small lakes

October has been a difficult month to pin down. I say that because of the weather, and as you by now know, I comment as much in these columns on the weather as I do on the fishing, because they are so intertwined. October’s weather reports are as varied as the characters delivering them. That is not because all fishermen (and weathermen) are liars, but because the fortunes of each valley have been so varied. What all the liars will agree on however, is that none of the pictures of flash floods emanate from the berg catchments. “Not true!” Simon Bunn would say: their hatchery in the Mlambonjwa valley suffered a 100mm storm and a flash flood 3 weeks ago!
But besides that event, the storms in the berg in these parts have mostly fizzled out and been replaced by View more...KZN Midlands, Trout:

October has been a difficult month to pin down. I say that because of the weather, and as you by now know, I comment as much in these columns on the weather as I do on the fishing, because they are so intertwined. October’s weather reports are as varied as the characters delivering them. That is not because all fishermen (and weathermen) are liars, but because the fortunes of each valley have been so varied. What all the liars will agree on however, is that none of the pictures of flash floods emanate from the berg catchments. “Not true!” Simon Bunn would say: their hatchery in the Mlambonjwa valley suffered a 100mm storm and a flash flood 3 weeks ago!
But besides that event, the storms in the berg in these parts have mostly fizzled out and been replaced by a bit of drizzle, that has greened the grass and little more.

Roy Ward and I rushed up to the Mooi a few weeks ago, on the strength of some sketchy rain reports, only to find the river running very thin indeed. (see the picture below)

By way of contract, I post below a picture of what the Mooi CAN look like at this spot, when it is all greened up and flowing well.

Those who know this stretch will recognize this as Picnic Rock

Peter Brigg reports similarly of the Bushmans river, in a piece on his blog: http://callofthestream.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/sunburnt-trout/
(I can strongly recommend that fly-anglers partial to their small stream fishing follow Peter’s excellent blog.)

So with such dismal river reports, minds remain on our stillwaters. Those fortunes are mixed too. Generally the Stillwater fishing has been good, as it often is when the water is warming, and passing through the 16 degrees C mark, as is currently the case.
The downside is that water levels are low in most waters, and precariously low in a few. The Natal Fly Fishers Club stocked it’s stillwaters last week, with over 30,000 small fish going in around the Midlands, but sadly a few dams had to be missed out due to dreadfully low water levels. I drove through the Kamberg valley on Saturday, and witnessed the low dams for myself.

There are of course a few waters that are not used for irrigation, and which don’t have leaks and other such disadvantages, and those are the ones to seek out. Waters in the berg areas or on forestry estates fall into that category. Tim Martin got a good Rainbow at Highmoor last week. Visitors there have the chance of some magnificent Trout, but you will have to tolerate a lot of small fish in between, since these were stocked just a few weeks ago. The Wildfly dams in the Kamberg have reportedly been producing some good fish, and on a visit to some NFFC water near Giants Castle, I landed a few lovely rainbows, including this one that took a small buzzer, tied klinkhamer style, which you can clearly see wedged in it's scissors in the picture below.

While on that water I witnessed a lot of black cloud and lightning up in the catchment of the Bushmans. I have yet to hear if any real run-off was gained from that event, but at a luncheon for the riparian owners of the NFFC on Sunday 26 October, the news was all of disappointing rainfall, and the Umgeni river being as low as it ever gets.

Here’s hoping that my November report will be of an entirely different nature.